Orioles, Yovani Gallardo Restructure Deal

According to Roch Kubatko of MASN, the Baltimore Orioles and Yovani Gallardo have restructured their original agreement after a physical showed undisclosed issues in the pitcher’s right shoulder. The deal is for two years and $22 million with a team option for a third year worth $13 million, according to Jon Heyman. The original deal was worth $35 million over three seasons with an option for a fourth year.

Gallardo, 29, is coming off a slightly above-average season in which he posted a 3.42 ERA and 4.00 FIP in 184.1 innings pitched. He only struck out 5.91 batters per nine innings after having four seasons of 8.99 K/9 from 2009 to 2012. He spent one year with the Texas Rangers after eight with the Milwaukee Brewers and has a career ERA of 3.66 and 3.74 FIP with a 23.2 fWAR in 247 games pitched.

The Orioles will now be giving up their first two draft picks in the 2016 Amateur Draft after signingDexter Fowler and now Gallardo. The club also re-signed slugger Chris Davis to a $161 million deal this offseason.

So 33M guarantee for Fowler and 22M for Gallardo puts O’s at 269.8M spending for the winter.

PECOTA currently has the Orioles at 72 wins, and Fangraphs has them at 78. Neither projection system has yet accounted for the free-agent additions made in the past week. The Orioles seem to outperform their peripherals every year, and there’s about a ten-game standard deviation for projections. It’s completely plausible that the addition of Gallardo and Fowler are enough to keep them in the race for the playoffs.